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A number of small, loosely affiliated "ecoterrorist" groups begin to form, mostly in California and West Coast areas of the United States, though their operations are evident throughout the nation. Some of the more prominent groups include: the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976); Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997); and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998). Generally, the groups' ideology embraces the concept of using property damage to hinder or stop the exploitation of animals and the destruction of the environment. These organizations usually target the operations of companies in related industries, or sometimes terrorize executives and employees of these firms. The companies usually targeted include automobile dealerships, housing developments, forestry companies, corporate and university-based medical research laboratories, restaurants, and fur farms. As of 2005, no one will have been injured in these attacks, though the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will predict that the steady escalation of violence from the groups may result in injury or even death. The groups will cause millions of dollars in damage to property and items, usually through arson, bombings, and vandalism. The "ecoterrorist" groups tend to be small, and made up of environmental and animal rights activists on the "fringes" of the mainstream movements who have become frustrated with the slow pace of change. Some members are also affiliated with one or another of the various "anarchist" groups. The ADL will contrast the typical "ecoterrorist" group with racist and white supremacist groups, noting that their organizational structure tends to be extremely egalitarian and sometimes almost nonexistent: "Unlike racial hate groups with established hierarchies and membership requirements, for example, an activist can become a member of the ecoterror movement simply by carrying out an illegal action on its behalf." [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] The term "ecoterrorism" does not gain widespread usage until after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) will note that "members of Congress, conservative commentators, and the FBI [will join] in a chorus decrying the acts as 'ecoterrorism.'" Charles Muscoplat, the dean of agriculture at the University of Minnesota—a targeted site—says: "These are clearly terroristic acts. Someone could get hurt or killed in a big fire like we had." ALF spokesman David Barbarash (see 1998) says in response: "I mean, what was the Boston Tea Party if not a massive act of property destruction?… Property damage is a legitimate political tool called economic sabotage, and it's meant to attack businesses and corporations who are profiting from the exploitation, murder, and torture of either humans or animals, or the planet.… [T]o call those acts terrorism is ludicrous." [Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/2002]
Entity Tags: David Barbarash, Animal Liberation Front, Anti-Defamation League, Charles Muscoplat, Southern Poverty Law Center, Earth Liberation Front, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Timeline Tags: US Domestic Terrorism
Two British animal rights activists, Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman of the "Band of Mercy," are jailed for firebombing a British vivisection research center. Following the attack, Lee issues a statement saying that the firebombing was intended to "prevent the torture and murder of our animal brothers and sisters." [Animal Liberation Front, 2002 ; Anti-Defamation League, 2005] After being released from jail, Lee and other Band of Mercy members will form the Animal Liberation Front (see 1976).
Entity Tags: Band of Mercy, Ronnie Lee, Cliff Goodman, Animal Liberation Front
A semiofficial logo for the Animal Liberation Front. [Source: Animal Liberation Front]The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) forms. It is widely considered the US's most active "ecoterrorist" movement (see 1970s) and focuses primarily on attacking companies that perpetuate cruelty to animals, often in the form of animal experimentation. It is very loosely organized, and composed of anonymous underground cells that mount operations to rescue animals from what it calls "places of abuse" and, it says, to "inflict economic damage to those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals." ALF traces its origins to a group of British activists in the late 1960s called the Hunt Saboteurs Association, whose prime goal was to disrupt fox hunts. In 1972, according to the anonymously published "ALF Primer," "after effectively ending a number of traditional hunting events across England, members of the Hunt Saboteurs decided more militant action was needed, and thus began the Band of Mercy." The Band of Mercy went farther than its parent organization, and in 1974 two of its members, Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman, were jailed for firebombing a vivisection research center in Great Britain (see 1974). When Lee is released from prison in 1976, he and some of his Band of Mercy colleagues found the ALF. The organization first begins operations in Great Britain, but quickly moves to America and begins escalating events. Its first known operation will be in 1979, when ALF activists break into a medical school and release animals being used for research (see 1979). Before it establishes a small press office in 1991, ALF's activities will be publicized and praised by a somewhat more mainstream animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] The ALF primer explains the "leaderless resistance" model followed by the group: "Due to the illegal nature of ALF activities, activists work anonymously, and there is no formal organization to the ALF. There is no office, no leaders, no newsletter, and no official membership. Anyone who carries out direct action according to ALF guidelines is a member of the ALF." The primer states the following as ALF guidelines: To liberate animals from places of abuse, i.e. fur farms, laboratories, factory farms, etc. and place them in good homes where they may live out their natural lives free from suffering. To inflict economic damage to those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals. To reveal the horror and atrocities committed against animals behind locked doors by performing nonviolent direct actions and liberations. To take all necessary precautions against hurting any animal, human and nonhuman. The primer states: "In the third section it is important to note the ALF does not, in any way, condone violence against any animal, human or non-human. Any action involving violence is by its definition not an ALF action, any person involved not an ALF member. The fourth section must be strictly adhered to. In over 20 years, and thousands of actions, nobody has ever been injured or killed in an ALF action." [Animal Liberation Front, 2002 ]
Entity Tags: Hunt Saboteurs Association, Cliff Goodman, Band of Mercy, Ronnie Lee, Animal Liberation Front, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
A small group of animal rights activists from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF-see 1976) break into the New York University Medical School and release five animals being used for research. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: New York University Medical School, Animal Liberation Front
In Britain, offshoots of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976), including the "Justice Department" and the "Animal Rights Militia," injure several people using letter bombs and envelopes rigged with poisoned razor blades. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] Among the injured are a furrier and his three-year-old daughter. Some of the razor blades are dipped in rat poison; one letter reads in part: "Dear animal killing scum! Hope we sliced your finger wide open and that you now die from the rat poison we smeared on the razor blade." The letter is signed, "Justice Department strikes again." British authorities believe that one person, ALF activist Keith Mann, is the leader of the Justice Department, though they cannot be sure. Mann will be sentenced to 11 years in prison for terrorist-related activities. A Justice Department statement explains that the group is willing to go farther than ALF, stating: "The Animal Liberation Front achieved what other methods have not while adhering to nonviolence.… A separate idea was established that decided animal abusers had been warned long enough.… [T]he time has come for abusers to have but a taste of the fear and anguish their victims suffer on a daily basis." [Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/2002]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front, "Justice Department", Animal Rights Militia
David Barbarash. [Source: Anti-Defamation League]David Barbarash, an animal rights activist with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976 and 1979-1993), is jailed for four months for releasing cats from a University of Alberta laboratory, where they were undergoing medical experiments and vivisections. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front, University of Alberta, David Barbarash
Rod Coronado. [Source: Fur Commission (.com)]Rod Coronado, an animal rights advocate affiliated with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) and a Vancouver organization, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is jailed for his roles in a 1987 arson at a University of California-Davis veterinary laboratory and a 1992 firebombing at an animal research laboratory at Michigan State University. The UC-D bombing caused over $3.5 million in property damage. Coronado will serve three and a half years in prison. He will become one of ALF's public representatives, lecturing around the country on behalf of ALF and other extremist animal rights and environmentalist groups (see 1970s). Coronado will tell a Michigan State University reporter, "I wish I could do it again," referring to the MSU bombing. "I have absolutely no regrets, and I hope the same thing continues to happen at MSU and every other college campus that does animal research." [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] The third edition of the ALF Primer will quote an anti-vivisection activist in defense of Coronado. Susan Paris, the president of the above-ground organization Americans for Medical Progress (AMP) will say: "Because of terrorist acts by animal activists like Coronado, crucial research projects have been delayed or scrapped. More and more of the scarce dollars available to research are spent on heightened security and higher insurance rates. Promising young scientists are rejecting careers in research. Top-notch researchers are getting out of the field." A 1993 report to Congress (see 1979-1993) made a similar observation, stating, "Where the direct, collateral, and indirect effects of incidents such as this are factored together, ALF's professed tactic of economic sabotage can be considered successful, and its objectives, at least towards the victimized facility, fulfilled." [Animal Liberation Front, 2002 ]
Entity Tags: Rod Coronado, Americans for Medical Progress, Animal Liberation Front, Michigan State University, University of California-Davis, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Susan Paris
A 2000 photo of Craig Rosebraugh. [Source: Doug Beghtel / The Oregonian]Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997) activist Craig Rosebraugh, a Portland, Oregon, native who has long been involved in the animal rights movement as well as opposing the Gulf War, joins another activist, Leslie James Pickering, in forming the Liberation Collective in Portland. Rosebraugh says he believes that "animal rights issues, environmental issues, social justice, are all related," and his collective is a way to bring together a variety of independently operating organizations, tied together, he says, "by our main ideological structure in the country, which we continue to operate under, and in my view that is capitalism." Rosebraugh successfully infuses some of the various movements, particularly ELF, with a strong anti-capitalist and anti-government ideology. Rosebraugh becomes ELF's public spokesman in late 1997, and coordinates ELF efforts with its sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976). [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Craig Rosebraugh, Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front, Leslie James Pickering, Liberation Collective
The original Earth Liberation First logo. [Source: Original ELF (.com)]The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an extremist offshoot of Earth First! (see 1980 and After) founded in Britain in 1992, steps up the vandalism and violence of its parent organization. It consciously models itself after the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) in having little to no hierarchical organization, and consists of what it calls "autonomous groups of people" who are "anonymous not only to the public but also to one another." The ELF writes that it exists to "inflict economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment," and "to reveal and educate the public on the atrocities committed against the earth and all species that populate it." In a promotional video, "Igniting the Revolution," ELF says it now knows "that to be successful in the struggle to protect the Earth, more extreme tactics must be utilized. Thus the Earth Liberation Front was born." It first garners major US public attention in 1997, when ELF activists burn down a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) horse corral in Oregon (see 1997). [Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/2002; Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Bureau of Land Management, Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front, Earth First!
One of several unofficial logos of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty organization. [Source: Kitty Liberation Front (.com)]The BBC broadcasts a graphic documentary detailing the mistreatment and abuse of animals by Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a British research firm. Angered animal rights activists in Britain begin to pressure financial institutions associated with HLS to drop their support of the company as a means to force it to stop performing animal testing. The campaign grows into the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) organization, which models itself on the tactics and ideologies espoused by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) and Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), among others. SHAC quickly migrates across the Atlantic to the US and into Europe; its activists will claim responsibility for a number of bombings and acts of vandalism and harassment. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Huntingdon Life Sciences, British Broadcasting Corporation, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Graham Hall's back, branded with the letters ALF. [Source: The Mail on Sunday]British reporter Graham Hall, who in 1998 infiltrated a British cell of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) with a hidden camera and captured footage of ALF's British spokesman Robin Webb giving a bomb-making manual to activists and suggesting a target, is abducted, apparently by ALF members. They blindfold Hall and threaten to kill him, then brand the letters ALF on his back before throwing him out of a van onto a deserted road. Hall produced a documentary, Inside the ALF, that portrayed the organization as violent and extremist. Webb says the documentary was heavily and selectively edited, and says of the branding, "People who make a living in this way have to expect from time to time to take the consequences of their actions." The British television network that aired the documentary, Channel 4, has offered to pay for plastic surgery for Hall, who considers himself an animal rights supporter but finds ALF's tactics too extreme. Police refuse to prosecute Webb and other ALF members, who in Hall's film boast of numerous bombings and arson attacks. Hall says of the ALF members he encountered: "Even I underestimated them. They are highly organized and totally obsessed—they'll stop at nothing. That conflict is now out of hand and ready to explode.… I have been badly shaken by this but it will not deter me from carrying on. I will not rest until I bring these men to justice… and it won't be the sort of justice they deal in. They are terrorists, not animal rights campaigners. They can't function without violence. They have done this to me because I hurt them with my film. They wanted to get back at me, pure and simple.… One day I will infiltrate the ALF again. And next time they won't get away with it." [The Mail on Sunday, 11/7/1999; Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front, Graham Hall, Robin Webb, Channel 4
The New York Times prints a lengthy interview with Craig Rosebraugh, who serves as an unofficial spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997). Rosebraugh, who claims to sympathize with the group even though knowing little about it, has spent weeks sending out statements and press releases on behalf of the ELF after the recent firebombing of a Vail, Colorado, ski resort (see October 19, 1998). Rosebraugh, who was contacted by unidentified ELF members about the Vail fires, says the ELF takes credit for the incident, and defends it by saying the resort has caused extensive damage to the area's lynx habitats and a planned expansion would all but destroy those habitats. "They don't want this to be seen like an act of terrorism," he recently told a reporter on behalf of ELF. "They instead want this to be seen as an act of love for the environment." The firebombing was not an instance of so-called "ecoterrorism," he told another reporter: "To me, Vail expanding into lynx habitat is ecoterrorism." Many mainstream groups such as the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife have condemned the Vail firebombing; Jonathan Staufer of the Colorado group Ancient Forest Rescue, who has been working to stop the Vail resort's proposed expansion, says: "It marginalized all the enviromentalists in Colorado who have been fighting it. I can't condemn it more completely." Rosebraugh became active in extreme environmental movements in June 1997, when he was contacted by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) and asked to be its "aboveground" spokesperson. Since then, he has formed a group called the Liberation Collective, which he says is intended to bring the ELF, ALF, and other "direct action" groups together to make common cause (see 1996 and After). Lieutenant Jeff Howard of the Oregon State Police says of the two groups, "If the truth be known, there are members that are probably members of both groups." Because of the decentralized, "cell" structure of both ELF and ALF, federal investigators have had difficulty determining even the most basic facts about the two organizations. Recently, Rosebraugh said of the federal investigations into ELF, ALF, and the Vail firebombing: "This is a very hot topic not only for the media, but most important it's a hot topic for the FBI and government agencies. The FBI just had a big meeting on animal rights terrorism. So there's obviously going to be a big crackdown soon. It's hard to imagine what's going to happen but you can only look at history, and history shows that there is going to be a lot of pressure and my feeling is the best way to act is to resist." [New York Times Magazine, 12/20/1998]
Entity Tags: New York Times, Animal Liberation Front, Ancient Forest Rescue, Craig Rosebraugh, Jonathan Staufer, Defenders of Wildlife, Jeff Howard, Sierra Club, Liberation Collective, Earth Liberation Front
Eighty university researchers receive threatening letters booby-trapped with razor blades. One of the letters, sent to a Harvard researcher, says: "You have until autumn 2000 to release all your primate captives and get out of the vivisection industry. If you do not heed our warning, your violence will be turned back upon you." The "Justice Department," an animal-rights organization and an offshoot of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976), claims responsibility for the mailing. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front, "Justice Department"
Craig Rosebraugh, the public spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), launches an official Web site for ELF along with Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) member Darren Thurston. Rosebraugh writes that the site is intended to "educate both the general public and the media on the ELF and actions that the group has taken in defense of the earth." After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the site proclaims: "In light of the events on September 11, my country has told me that I should not cooperate with terrorists. I therefore am refusing to cooperate with members of Congress who are some of the most extreme terrorists in history." Rosebraugh will echo these words in February 2002 when, after resigning his position when his house is raided by federal agents, he is compelled to testify before a House subcommittee. He does, however, answer some written questions; asked if he fears an ELF action might one day kill someone, Rosebraugh responds: "No. I am more concerned with massive numbers of people dying at the hands of greedy capitalists if such actions are not taken." [Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/2002; Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front, Darren Thurston, Craig Rosebraugh
A scene from the UW Horticulture Center fire. [Source: Associated Press]Two college students set off a firebomb at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture that causes $7 million in damages. No one is injured in the blast, caused by several time-delayed fire bombs. Lacey Phillabaum and Jennifer Kolar are affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), which will take credit for the bombing. ELF's plan was to target genetically-engineered poplar trees at the center, but the bomb also destroys other research projects, including wetlands restoration and endangered stickweed plants. Since 2000, ELF has targeted companies and government facilities involved in genetic engineering; a professor involved in the poplar project, Toby Bradshaw, received timber-industry funding for the research. ELF's statement after the bombing calls the genetically engineered poplars "an ecological nightmare" for the diversity of native forests. Bradshaw will say that most of the damage he suffered was to his office; a greenhouse containing some 80 genetically-engineered poplars survives unscathed. "The truth is that we're dealing with a bunch of misinformed… folks who don't understand the research that was being carried out," Bradshaw will say. "Even though I was the target, I am the one who was least affected." Of charges that his "mutant" trees would damage the environment, Bradshaw says his work will almost certainly never "see the outside of a greenhouse." The UW bombing is one of two planned for the day of May 21; a second bombing also occurs at a Clatskanie, Oregon, poplar farm owned by a timber firm, claiming two buildings and a dozen vehicles. Five years later, Phillabaum and Kolar will plead guilty to participating in the firebombing and other, lesser charges in return for their cooperation in a federal investigation into attacks mounted by ELF and its sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976). US Attorney John McKay will say, "These violent acts of destruction are not a valid form of political speech." Both will receive significantly smaller prison terms than they may have received had they gone to trial and been convicted of all counts. Three other ELF members were at the scene: William C. Rodgers, a longtime ELF activist who will commit suicide in an Arizona jail in 2005 (see October 19, 1998); Justin Solondz, who helped assemble the bombs and is now a fugitive; and Briana Waters, who has been indicted for serving as a lookout for the UW bombing. [Los Angeles Times, 6/9/2001; Seattle Times, 10/5/2006]
Entity Tags: William C. Rodgers, University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture, Lacey Phillabaum, John L. McKay, Jennifer Kolar, Earth Liberation Front, Briana Waters, Justin Solondz, Toby Bradshaw
One of a number of semi-official logos for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). [Source: Seventh Generation (.com)]A number of moderate and more radical animal rights groups hold their annual conference at the McLean Hilton in McLean, Virginia. More "mainstream" groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are represented, as are groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which straddle the divide between mainstream moderate rhetoric and extremism, and frankly extremist organizations such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976), its affiliate environmental organization Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998). PETA's Bruce Friedrich tells a panel: "If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then of course we're going to be blowing things up and smashing windows.… I think it's a great way to bring about animal liberation, considering the level of suffering, the atrocities. I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them, exploded tomorrow. I think it's perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through the windows.… Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it." The panel members and audience applaud Friedrich's words. ALF, ELF, and SHAC activists share a table, handing out pamphlets and T-shirts, one of which reads, "Words Mean Nothing… Action is Everything!" [Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/2002]
Entity Tags: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Animal Liberation Front, Humane Society of the United States, Bruce Friedrich, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, Earth Liberation Front
Firefighters battle a blaze at a Tucson McDonald's restaurant. [Source: Moonbattery (.com)]Activists with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) set fire to a McDonald's restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, causing $500,000 in damages. McDonald's has long been a target for the organization because of the firm's large-scale slaughter of beef cattle, and the cover of the ALF manual "ARSON-Around with Auntie ALF" depicts a cartoon of a McDonalds burnt to the ground (see 1997). ALF and its sister organization, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), claim credit for the fire in a joint statement, and say the fire is meant as a warning to corporations worldwide. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front, McDonald's, Earth Liberation Front
Animal rights activist Christopher McIntosh sets fire to the roof of a McDonald's restaurant in Seattle. The FBI will apprehend McIntosh after identifying his fingerprints from a spray-paint can he leaves behind. McIntosh claims that the arson is a joint effort of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) and Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997). [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front, Christopher McIntosh
Activists with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) plant two explosives designed to spread fire quickly in a McDonald's restaurant in Chico, California. The phrases "meat is murder" and "species equality" are spray-painted in red, as is "Animal Liberation Front." A note connecting ALF to the crime is found in a nearby phone booth. The two devices fail to ignite, but a week later, another McDonald's in Chico is damaged by such a device. "Liberation" and "ALF" are also spray-painted on the walls. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] The ALF frequently targets McDonald's restaurants (see September 8, 2001).
Entity Tags: McDonald's, Animal Liberation Front
A caged mink on a fur farm. The mink will be eventually slaughtered for its fur. [Source: NYC Animal Rights]Activists with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) release approximately 10,000 mink held captive on a "fur farm" in Sultan, Washington. The mink are slated to be killed and have their fur turned into coats and other items of apparel. The activists may have used instructions from the online guide "The Final Nail: Destroying the Fur Industry—A Guided Tour," which lists the addresses of "fur farms" as well as giving other information about disrupting their operations. The mink release causes approximately $10,000 in damages. An ALF statement claims credit for the release, and warns that "all institutions of animal exploitation—regardless of any attempts to conceal their bloody operations—will be located and the animals liberated." The mink release is the area's third in three years. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Animal Liberation Front
John E. Lewis of the FBI's counterterrorism division tells the Senate Judiciary Committee of an "upswing in violent rhetoric and tactics" among ecoterrorists (see 1970s), and says that in recent years two specific organizations, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), "have become the most active criminal extremist elements in the United States." [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Animal Liberation Front, Counterterrorism Division (FBI), Earth Liberation Front, Senate Judiciary Committee, John E. Lewis
Environmental activists Harrison David Burrows and Joshua Stephen Demmitt are sentenced to over two years in prison for helping set fire to an animal husbandry building at Utah's Brigham Young University. Demmitt admitted that they set the fires on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976). [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Joshua Stephen Demmitt, Brigham Young University, Animal Liberation Front, Harrison David Burrows
Animal rights activist Peter Daniel Young is arrested in California. Young, a fugitive for over seven years who was originally arrested for shoplifting, is charged with breaking into three Wisconsin "fur farms," releasing thousands of animals, and causing over $200,000 in damages. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) claimed responsibility for the releases. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Peter Daniel Young, Animal Liberation Front
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FANNIE MAE and Freddie Mac collapsed into the costliest bailout of the financial crisis because they nurtured impossible internal conflicts. The two government-chartered mortgage companies grew reckless and greedy during the run-up to the housing bust. They swallowed billions in toxic mortgage instruments as they chased profits for their private investors. The chase destroyed them.
Several years and $187 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts later, America's housing market is reemerging, and so are Fannie and Freddie. The two government-owned firms are profitable again, and Wall Street is trying to sink its hooks back into the mortgage companies. The opening is there, because Congress has punted away any plans for putting Fannie and Freddie out of business. And if the current Wall Street gambit succeeds, it could reestablish the same dynamic that helped ruin the companies in the first place.
The current conflict centers on investor lawsuits seeking to crack open the September 2008 bailouts of Fannie and Freddie. The two companies owned or backed half of the country's mortgages at the time of the housing market collapse, and the Treasury Department nationalized them to head off the total implosion of the housing and banking industries.
Treasury's takeover wiped out Fannie and Freddie's stock, which wasn't worth anything as long as the companies themselves were worthless. The lawsuits Fannie and Freddie are fighting off now come from investors who bought the companies' stock on the cheap at the depths of the housing bust, and are now asking the federal courts to make that stock worth something again.
Perry Capital, a New York-based hedge fund, is leading a pack of investors in seeking to overturn a key 2012 change to Fannie and Freddie's bailout. Before the change, the companies paid interest on their bailout funds to the Treasury. But because they were broke, Fannie and Freddie would borrow from the Treasury to make interest payments to the Treasury.
The 2012 change eliminated the interest payments, and instead swept most of the firms' profits to the government. And lately, the windfall has been significant. Fannie and Freddie, which combined to lose more than $250 billion from 2008 to 2011, have posted $130 billion in profits over the past year. The investors who bought Fannie and Freddie stock when it was worthless now want a piece of that action; they're claiming the deal to hand all Fannie and Freddie profits to the Treasury was illegal self-dealing.
The government has argued that any profits that Fannie and Freddie produce belong to the taxpayers who effectively own the companies. Still, the lawsuits put the government in an uncomfortable situation.
More than five years after rescuing Fannie and Freddie, Washington still doesn't know what to do with the two companies. By claiming all of their profits, the Treasury bought policymakers some time. Fannie and Freddie still underwrite a huge portion of the housing market, but if they don't keep their profits, they can't become a vehicle for private speculation. Perry is trying to roll back the clock, to a time when Fannie and Freddie's government backing made money for wealthy investors.
The issue is much bigger than whether some hedge funds are able to make a bet on Fannie and Freddie's junk stock pay off. If Fannie and Freddie stop depositing their profits in the Treasury, they're viable private businesses again — private businesses backstopped by the federal government.
This is exactly the conflict of interest that ruined the two mortgage companies in the fall of 2008. Fannie and Freddie took huge risks in the name of making profits for private investors, and when those risks soured, taxpayers ate all the losses. Fannie and Freddie lost enormous amounts of money, not just because they covered half the country's mortgages, but because they'd gorged themselves on subprime Wall Street bonds — bonds full of toxic mortgages that Fannie and Freddie couldn't legally write themselves. Their subprime bond binge had nothing to do with helping Americans buy homes, and everything to do with chasing profits for private shareholders.
The conflict between taxpayer risk and private profit is on ice, so long as Fannie and Freddie have no profits to speak of. But it can only be solved by putting the companies down for good. Congress dithered and ducked the issue for years. And now, as a reward for Washington's inaction, they've tempted a federal court to take the decision away from them.
Paul McMorrow is an associate editor at Commonwealth Magazine. His column appears regularly in the Globe.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
How To Create Short But Powerful Video Clips For Your Website
About Gideon ShalwickGideon Shalwick is a YouTube and video marketing expert, and has figured out how to get a TON of attention using online video (with one YouTube channel reaching 10 million views!), and today, he's built a following of over 100,000 people for his business ventures, and 60,000+ people on this very blog, where he shares some of his most powerful video marketing strategies.
Leave a Reply to Jordy Click here to cancel reply.
39 Responses to How To Create Short But Powerful Video Clips For Your Website
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Joel
We use the Zeigarnik Effect in most our videos on http://www.FreeMagicLive.com.
Also, watch programs like "Desperate Housewives" and "House" and "Lost" to get the full effect of what it's like when done well
Have fun!
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Gideon Shalwick
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Gideon, the Zeigarnik Effect is something I've never heard of either!
So what was the Zeigarnik Effect in this video?
Oh…it was you didn't tell us much about the Zeigarnik Effect!
I get it!
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Andrew
Very true… maybe I should have created some more mystery at the front – hehehe.
But actually, just by introducing the topics like I did, that opens up the loop, cos it tells people what's coming up (proof that it worked is that you got to the end of the video where I talk about the Zeigarnik effect – hehehe).
If I wanted to strengthen the intro, I could have made it all secretive and fun stuff like that
For example – instead of just saying… "First, I'll tell you what equipment you'll need" I could have said something like… "First, I'll reveal 3 secret pieces of equipment you'll need – If you don't have this exact same equipment, your videos will fail…" or something nice and dramatic 😉 – you get the idea.
Then at the end to open up the loop again, I could have said something like… "Inside the next video, I'll reveal a secret strategy that will help you make your videos look as crisp and clear as ever – this is something not many people know about, and you'll just LOVE it when you see it!" Or something similar like that.
All good fun!
Thanks Gideon for the tips.
I have Camstasia installed and started to shoot some videos but I have few issues:
1 – There is little noise in the recording, is that Microphone problem? What is your recommendation for Microphone brand?
2 – I will upload the videos to YouTube, should I create 10min. episodes or there is a trick?
Thank You!
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Mohammed Al-Taee
Thanks for your questions. Here are some of my answers:
1. The noise could be coming from anywhere – it could be your computer (like it's fan), or it could becoming from your mic, or it could be coming from your surroundings (other noise and possibly electromagnetic interference). My suggestion is that you try to eliminate things. For example, see if you can borrow a mic from a friend and see if that makes a difference. Or try it on a different computer using the same mic. Or try and do it in a different location. My best recommendation yet is to just get a Mac. I recommended 2 mic's in the video – just watch it again – I've also added the links to each of the microphone pages below the video.
2. Not sure I understand your question about YouTube. But I'm assuming you're asking how to get videos on there that are longer than 10 minutes? If so, there are two ways. One, you could just split your videos up into different parts (eg part 1 and part 2 etc). Or Two, you can try to become a partner, which then allows you to add videos of any length. But it's quite challenge to become a partner.
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Gideon,
Nice little video again.
As a psychologist, I have known about the Zeigarnik-effect. In fact, I had to learn it for my one of the major psychology exams back in university. Fun stuff.
Anyway, you are right Gideon. The Zeigarnik-effect can be very powerful. As you said you can learn about how to use it right by watching popular TV series.
The important thing is to leave your visitor with something to guess about. That's what happens when you watch one of those TV series. At the end of each episode, when you are introduced to an unresolved drama, you'll start guessing and wondering. You go like "I bet it was her old boyfriend she saw in the dark" or "I wonder if the killer will catch him" …whatever, you get the picture. It's very important that the person gets involved with your stuff mentally.
Unresolved issue creates psychological tension. Psychological tension is not a good state to be in, so the person tries to resolve the issue. For example, she'll make sure she sets apart some time to watch the next episode of "Lost" or whatever. Or your next video.
For this to work, your subject needs to be interested in your stuff of course. If she doesn't want your stuff in the first place…well, you know that…you can't talk them into wanting your stuff. But if they are quality prospects than the Zeigarnik-effect can work sooo well when executed correctly (like, make them guess and think about your stuff until your next video comes on air).
All the best,
Hi Gideon, I am new to this blogging thing but following your excellent video's I now have a web site set up and running with WordPress; nothing on there as yet but following your Roadmap ebook I am taking the time to make sure I have some good content. A lot of my content will be in the form of music or video but my last attempt to view a file from my server which I had already uploaded meant that as a browser, I had to connect securely with my user name and password which obviously the public will not know. You alluded to linking stuff from your own server in this video so have you done any instructions on this process? If not maybe you could point me somewhere please?
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Pete
This may answer a lot of your questions:
Just let me know on that post of anything is not clear ok?
I love that idea, I hate it when they do that on TV, cliff-hangers, especially over the (long) Xmas break!
So I'll be sure to use that too! LOL
Okay, Got the Mac – Got Screenflow, how about doing a video on editing the Screenflow movie Gideon? You could do it in several parts, with cliff-hangers in the right places!
I've had a few tries, but it's not going as well as I would like it to be. I want them to be as good as yours……. and the bar is set high there!
Thanks again, great stuff,
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Maggie
The more you work at it, the more tricks you will learn, and the better you will get at it.
Also have a look at ScreenFlow's site – they have some pretty cool tutorials there for free. That's how I got started with it.
Talk soon!
Gideon Shalwick
Hi Gideon
The microphones you refer to are USB powered. Straightforward to plug into the computer to create a webinar, for example, using the computer's built-in camera. (I use a Mac, of course)
But what about if you want to put an external mic on portable camera, to film an event? I have a Canon Legria HFS10, which has an external mic jack. Any mic recommendations or advice?
Your material is really timely and valuable to help launch my internet aspirations!
Thank you
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Andrew
I just use a really cheap little mic on my camera – it cost around $30, but it does a really good job. In fact, it does a better job than a $120 Sony mic that I got that I though would be better for some reason.
It really depends a lot on your camera and the kind of microphones you can plug into it.
But from what I understand, Senheiser is one of the leading microphone brands around. Maybe worth checking out!
Gideon Shalwick
So was that the Zeigarnik Effect in action Gideon? What's the $30 mike you've got?
I'm buying a camera this weekend, I was thinking to get the Canon Legria HF200 HD – feeling insecure, do you know it? Can't afford a high end camera, but will have to do some very challenging filming. I plan to do a few tutorials that involve soldering with a flame, very intense light. Any pointers?
You are the Video king. Keep up the great work. I am loving your becomeablogger/premium program. It is the best I have ever seen. You are a phenomenal teacher.
Hello Gideon,
First of all, thank you and Yaro for answering my questions during the teleconference call. You guys rule!
I know you're on Mac and use Screenflow, but if by any chance you're familiar with Camtasia too, could you please tell us what settings to use for exporting the video that later will be uploaded to YouTube?
I use Screenr most of the time, but for some videos I'll need to capture my webcam too and Screenr can't do it. I played around with Camtasia a little, but the results were not of good quality (the video was not crisp and clear). So if you could enlighten us about how to export videos so that they look great on YouTube, I'd really appreciate that.
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Zsolt
Unfortunately I have not used my PC for about a year now – it's stacked away somewhere in the basement
But try adjusting some of these values if you can:
The bit rate of the video – 1000 mbps is the minimum that you want
The frame rate – 25-30 frames per second is standard for online.
Compression type – Camtasia should give you different formats to export to – try different types and see what kind of results you get.
HUGE TIP: When testing things like this, just export a small part of the video (like 30 seconds) – that will save you HEAPS of time!
And finally, does this help at all?
Talk soon!
Hello Gideon, great info that I use right now.
I was referred this to a friend http://wetoku.com/
Its a video service that can allow you to interview your web cam conversations and post them in your blogs quickly.
Hi Gideon,
I love your work. Your videos are very crisp and clear.
I have recently joined Yaro's BlogMastermind and MembershipSiteMastermind programme. You both make things very easy and simple. I think I am in safe hands.
I will appreciate if you can show in detail about Video Editing.
Want to connect and learn more from you, Gideon.
Hi Gideon, I've checked out Screenr.com and it looks very cool but I always worry about using 3rd party apps in case they plaster my videos with ads in the future or go bust!
I see that they give you a 'download MP4′ option, so would uploading that file to my Amazon S3 account be an option to answer my concerns (i.e. I'd have control over the video) and would that work with the Flash Video plugin for WordPress you mention elsewhere on this site?
Gideon Shalwick
Good point Clive
That's a worry that I have as well.
That's why, more recently I am moving back to ScreenFlow and YouTube, because ScreenFlow now has a nice upload to YouTube feature. So, even though my videos are on YouTube, I also have them on my computer for long keeping.
Yes, you could upload the mp4 file from screenr to your amazon s3 account, but I am not sure whether it would work with the Flash Video Player plugin – worth a try though!
All the best!
I have been fan for your blog and information.
I want to learn more of how to make video, do you still have your program to show people how to make good quality vido and training video?
Do you create your video from home or you have special setting for record and making video ?
thank you
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Jarvis
Check out http://www.GetYourVideoOnline.com – some nice free vids there showing you all about getting your first video online.
I create all my videos from home
Talk soon!
Thanks for this information.
The screenr.com software looks very good. I checked out their website and I am going to start using it.
Thanks again.
Duane Spears
great site…….screenr works great but is camtasia studio the only screen capture software that allows you to blur your screen. i was hoping i could find something that included that function but didnt cost as much as camtasia. is didnt seem like the camtasia.org version allowed blurring either
I don't know is if this is relavent but I'm only 12 and I don't understand all this stuff (I'm writing a book series and I want to make a short preview of a movie for the first book to put on site) can you give me some sort of advice to understand all of this and some for making my preview?
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BAGHDAD -- The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority has called for the creation of a new, "effective" government, increasing pressure on the country's premier as an offensive by Sunni militants rages on. The call Friday by Gran Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani contained thinly veiled criticism that Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in office since 2006, was to blame for the nation's crisis over the blitz by the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Al-Sistani's message was delivered by his representative Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie in the holy city of Karbala.
He said the future government "should open new horizons toward a better future for all Iraqis." Al-Maliki's Shiite-led government long has faced criticism of discriminating against Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish populations. Iraq's Shiite prime minister, embattled by the militant offensive sweeping his country's north, faces a growing campaign to force him out of office as insurgents press on with their campaign. Nouri al-Maliki, who rose from relative obscurity to the country's top political office in 2006, has seen his credibility challenged by the Sunni militants of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The insurgents launched a stunning offensive last week that swallowed up a large chunk of northern Iraq, together with the nation's second-largest city, Mosul. With the country now in turmoil, al-Maliki's rivals have mounted a campaign to force him out of office, with some angling for support from Western backers and regional heavyweights. On Thursday, their effort received a massive boost from President Barack Obama. The U.S. leader stopped short of calling for Nouri al-Maliki to resign, saying "it's not our job to choose Iraq's leaders." But, his carefully worded comments did all but that. "Only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through this crisis," Obama declared at the White House. "We've said publicly, that whether (al-Maliki) is prime minister or any other leader aspires to lead the country, that there has to be an agenda in which Sunni, Shiite and Kurd all feel that they have the opportunity to advance their interest through the political process," the president said. An "inclusive agenda" has not been high on the priorities of al-Maliki, however. Many of al-Maliki's former Kurdish and Shiite allies have been clamoring to deny the prime minister a third term in office, charging that he has excluded them from a narrow decision-making circle of close confidants. Al-Maliki's efforts last year to crush protests by Sunnis complaining of discrimination under his Shiite-led government sparked a new wave of violence by militants, who took over the city of Fallujah in the western, Sunni-dominated province of Anbar and parts of the provincial capital Ramadi. Iraqi army and police forces battling them for months have been unable to take most areas back. At the same time, many Iraqis complain of government corruption, the failure to rebuild the economy and too close ties with mostly Shiite Iran, a non-Arab nation that Sunni Arab states, including powerhouse Saudi Arabia, see as a threat to regional stability. Shiite politicians familiar with the secretive efforts to remove al-Maliki said two names mentioned as possible replacements are former vice president Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a French-educated economist who is also a Shiite, and Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who served as Iraq's first prime minister after Saddam's ouster. Al-Mahdi belongs to a moderate Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which has close links with Iran. Also lobbying for the job is Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite lawmaker who recently joined the Supreme Council and was once a favorite by Washington to lead Iraq a decade ago. Another Shiite from the Supreme Council who is trying to land the job is Bayan Jabr, a former finance and interior minister under al-Maliki's tenure, according to the politicians, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. An Iraqi Shiite lawmaker, Hakim al-Zamili, said he was aware of a meeting in recent days between Iraqi political leaders and U.S. officials over the issue of al-Maliki's future, though he did not know who attended the meeting. Mohammed al-Khaldi, a top aide to outgoing Sunni speaker of parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi, said: "We have asked the Americans, Britain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran to work toward denying al-Maliki a new term. The Shiite bloc must find a replacement for him." A leading Sunni tribal chief also said al-Maliki has to go. "I think that most of Obama's speech, but not all of it, it was shallow and didn't address the heart of the matter," Sheik Ali Hatem al-Suleiman told The Associated Press in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil. "The real problem in Iraq is al-Maliki himself." "U.S. policy cannot rely on a paralyzed man who has lost control of Iraq, when he is the one who took Iraq to this point." Al-Maliki has been adopting conciliatory language in recent days toward Sunnis and Kurds. He said the militant threat affects all Iraqis, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation, and called on Iraqis to drop all "Sunnis and Shiites" talk. The ongoing crisis, al-Maliki said, had made Iraqis rediscover "national unity." The pro-al-Maliki media also made a show of a meeting Tuesday night between the Iraqi leader and Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political leaders. Al-Maliki's efforts come as militants and soldiers fight for control of the Beiji refinery, the country's largest, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The loss of the refinery would be a devastating symbol of the Baghdad government's powerlessness in the face of a determined insurgency hostile to the West. By late Thursday, the two sides held different parts of the refinery, which extends over several square kilometers (miles) of desert. The army officer in charge of protecting the refinery told The Associated Press on Friday that he believed the militants were regrouping to launch a new attack after his forces repelled one Thursday night. There was no immediate way to independently verify his claims. The facility's production accounts for just over a quarter of the country's entire refining capacity. It goes strictly toward domestic consumption for gasoline as well as fuel for cooking and power stations. It isn't clear what the insurgents would do if they fully captured Beiji. In Syria, the Islamic State has control of some smaller oil fields, but government air raids have limited their ability to profit from them. Militants have, however, refined oil into usable fuel products at primitive refineries. --- Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad, Diaa Hadid in Irbil, Iraq, and Lara Jakes and Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.


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you are made with meaning and put together with purpose
Take a ride with John and explore what is possibly one of the strangest parables Jesus ever told.
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I am a follower of Jesus Christ, though I am continually growing in understanding what that means. I believe that God loves everyone all the time. The world was created for love and whenever we veer from love, we miss the mark of who we were created to be.
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You are, in fact, God's gift to the world.
Not in a prideful way, because everyone is God's gift to the world.
You are God's gift to the world because God has specific and important work for you to do.
A long time ago, a man named Paul who tried to stamp out Christianity and became its biggest proponent wrote this about people:
For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
That's you, my friend.
I plan to remind you who you are quite regularly.
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Federal politics: full coverage
Australia's army chief has dismissed the prospect that tensions between Indonesia and Australia could erupt into military conflict in the future, saying "cool heads on both sides" would always prevail.
Lieutenant-General David Morrison, who is expected to leave the top army post in a few months' time, acknowledged there were "concerns on the part of the Indonesian government at the moment, in terms of their relationships with Australia".
But he said there had been tough periods in the two countries' shared history – notably during the near-confrontation of the 1960's and the East Timor crisis of 1999 – and that "the way [they] worked together, through some really difficult periods.. augurs well for the future".
"My sense is that cool heads on both sides, who see the importance of both fulfilling national objectives but also meeting international obligations, will always predominate," he told the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
Lieutenant-General Morrison also admitted being taken aback at the "surreal" way in which a YouTube warning he delivered to soldiers last year in the wake of the army's most recent sex scandal went viral, elevating him to the status of feminist hero.
During the three-minute clip, he looked down the barrel of the camera and told Defence Force members to " get out" if they were going to "exploit and demean" their colleagues or other women.
He told the Lowy Institute that "it is somewhat surreal to have a three and a half decade career crystallised into such a sharp focus… [but] I am actually very proud that our army and the changes we are now undertaking are being seen in such a positive light".
In a veiled warning about the risks of cutting too much from the defence budget as combat forces withdraw from Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General Morrison said that talk of a "peace dividend" and a reduction in the need for military readiness was "hollow".
He said the army had "atrophied" in the three decades after the end of the Vietnam war, leaving it ill-prepared for the East Timor crisis of 1999.
"By the time of the East Timor crisis, which erupted with little warning… we were seriously deficient in a range of vital aspects of land operations and we lacked a coherent force structure," he said.
"We had great difficulty deploying, commanding and sustaining a fairly modest Australian force, let alone the multinational coalition we ended up leading."
This was a "potentially catastrophic failure", he added.
Currently, he said, Australia was entering "one of the most uncertain and challenging eras in its history".
The army chief also spoke soberly on the prospects of climate change.
"Of course we have military interests in what I think has been called the great challenge of our time," Lieutenant-General Morrison said. "It's not lost on anybody … that the climatic conditions within the globe are changing and there are serious implications as a result of that."
These included challenges for the military, given the number of low-lying islands within the region, he said.
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Acer Aspire 2865 Desktop RAM Memory Upgrades
The memory modules below are 100% compatible with your Acer Aspire 2865 Desktop. Not your model? View the complete range of Acer Desktops or view all Acer upgrades here.
128MB Module
- Dimm Speed: PC100
- Dimm Type: Non-ECC
- Product code: FT16MLS64V8D
- Storage Capacity: 128MB Module
- Form Factor: 168 Pin Dimm
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Guaranteed CompatibilityOver the years we have taken immense care in creating one of the most in depth memory configurators. We do this to ensure that when you purchase a memory upgrade from OFFTEK you are confident that the upgrade is 100% compatible with your system. Should you have any questions prior to ordering your upgrade we have technicians on hand via live chat, email or phone who will be able to answer any queries you may have.
We take the time to look into each machine to ensure that we offer all sizes and speeds that the machine is able to take not just the latest specification that has been released. We believe that offering all options for machines provides a 100% guarantee that the memory with function with your original memory module efficiently.
You might also like..
The History of Kingmax Semiconductor Incorporated
The company was started by Liu Fu-Chou in his home country of Taiwan but has since expanded its operations into Hong Kong and China. Kingmax has been something of a trailblazer in the semiconductor world and was the first manufacturer in the world to achieve a microSD with a storage capacity of 64 Gigabytes.
The company remained in its original state until 2015, when it merged with International Branding Marketing Incorporated and was subsequently floated on the Taiwanese stock exchange.
The company has not fully entered the retail channel world, preferring to mainly supply components to the major computer retailers around the world. That list is long and illustrious, replete with names like Dell, Asus, Acer, IBM, HP and Sun Microsystems to whom Kingmax has supplied hardware for almost 20 years.
Modern Offerings
Kingmax have stayed at the leading edge of computer component manufacturing even to this day, currently offering DDR4 hardware by the name of the 'Zeus Dragon', which is tailored perfectly to the gamers of this world. The company takes great pride in the hardware it produces, even taking care to make the modules (which remember, aren't normally seen!) pleasing to the eye as well as high performing.
Quality Production
The high standards that the company sets itself are equal in importance to the materials that they use to produce their hardware. For example, the aforementioned DDR4 is created using a heat sink made from aluminium which makes it able to quickly get rid of heat, prolonging the life of the product.
Additionally, the various types of electronic hardware the company produces is known for its efficient use of power and for its reliability. Before you think we have shares in Kingmax, it is important to say that there are other brands of memory available, but the quality of Kingmax RAM is backed up by the fact that their memory is compliant to JEDEC DDR4 standards and is created without the use of lead during the process.
The company has managed to remain extremely competitive in the semiconductor industry, but this is not achieved by accident. On their website, it states that they are committed to efficient use of energy, materials and this is achieved through striving for technological excellence.
You'll likely see their products on the market for some time to come.
Specification of Acer Aspire 2865 memory upgrade
Your system memory specification is listed below, most importantly your maximum memory capacity:
|Device Specifications
|Make + Model
|Acer Aspire 2865
|Device Type
|N° of Ram Slots
|3 Slots (3 Banks of 1)
|Standard Ram
|32MB (Removable)
|Maximum Memory
|Acer Tech Support
|Official Acer Support Link
If you are looking to place a quantity order or are buying on behalf of the public or private sector then please contact one of our designated account managers who will be able to deal with your requirements in more detail.
For any queries you may have please contact one of our experienced Memory Specialists via one of the following methods and they will ensure that any issue is resolved immediately and effectively.
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Matched Ram upgrades for your specific modelOfftek provides matched upgrades for new and legacy machines. Every one of our RAM modules are tested to ensure that not only are they compatible with the machine but also that they perform in a wide range of different environmental conditions. This allows us to back our modules with a limited lifetime warranty.
Established in 1996, OFFTEK is trusted by many of the UK's best known household names as their number ONE source for ram upgrades.
Misson critical or movie night we have your upgrade sortedOur team is made up of memory specialists with an average of 9 years experience in the RAM industry. We offer upgrades for not only the latest machines on the market but just as important those legacy machines that you need to keep running.
RAM is extremely important in ensuring your machine operates at its optimum performance. Our upgrades ensure that your computer will be performing at its best for years to come.
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Technical Staff with Over 9 years of experienceWe have dedicated and highly trained experts with an average of 9 years experience. They are here to help you from purchase through to installation. We use a number of contact methods so you can speak to one of our specialists with ease.
Fast Free UK DeliveryWe offer FAST FREE UK Delivery on all orders with 96% of orders dispatched same day. For those that cannot wait we also offer faster delivery options including next day.
60 Day Money Back GuaranteeNot 100% happy with your order then return it to us under our No Quibble 60 Day Money Back Guarantee. Worried you might have made the wrong choice? With our no quibble return policy you can send it back to us and get a full refund up to 60 days after you've received your order. Whether you've picked the wrong product or just changed your mind you can send your order back to us and you'll get all your money back.
Twice Daily Price ChecksOur Price Promise commitment means that you can buy from us with confidence.
Our team works hard to ensure that you not only have peace of mind in the fact that the memory you order is 100% compatible but that our price is also the lowest for that product.
We check our prices daily against all our competitors to ensure that you are getting the best deal.
Experts On HandWe have dedicated and highly trained experts with an average of 7 years experience. They are here to help you from purchase through to installation. We use a number of contact methods so you can speak to one of our specialists with ease.
Limited Lifetime WarrantyFeel confident that your memory will last a lifetime. Our limited lifetime warranty guarantees that if your memory should ever fail we will replace or repair the product free of charge provided that it is still manufactured. Please note that the lifetime warranty refers only to memory modules and not flash memory or storage products. Please see the individual 'product details' for warranties specific to each product.
100% CompatibilityEvery memory product matched specifically to your machine is individually tested to guarantee reliability and 100% compatibility with your computer and operating system.
Online Since 1997Offtek has been supplying memory online since 1997 with over 500,000 happy customers. Well, maybe the odd one does'nt like us ;)
We have always been passionate about providing our customers with the tools and information to update their systems in the simplest manner. Early in 1996 we took on the challenge to find the type of memory compatible with every computer ever built. Hence our first memory configurator was born. Our constant daily updates allow our customers to easily select the correct memory for their machines and that objective is as important today as it was when the idea was first broached across a kitchen table in central Birmingham
Large Stock HoldingAs one the largest memory distributors in Europe, our large stock holding allows us to offer next day delivery on a wide range of products.
Environmentally FriendlyIf you have no need for your old memory after you have upgraded to one of our larger/faster modules, we will recycle this for you free of charge under the WEEE directive.
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The advantages of adding more Ram Memory
Installing a memory module is one of the simplest upgrades that can be done to a computerThere is no configuration, no sitting around waiting for things to update and backup. It is simply plug and play! By adding more Ram memory into you laptop, desktop or server you will be doing the following:
- Improving the overall performance of the machine
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Guaranteed CompatibilityOver the years we have taken immense care in creating one of the most in depth memory configurators. We do this to ensure that when you purchase a memory upgrade from OFFTEK you are confident that the upgrade is 100% compatible with your system. Should you have any questions prior to ordering your upgrade we have technicians on hand via live chat, email or phone who will be able to answer any queries you may have.
We take the time to look into each machine to ensure that we offer all sizes and speeds that the machine is able to take not just the latest specification that has been released. We believe that offering all options for machines provides a 100% guarantee that the memory with function with your original memory module efficiently.


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|Is Anyone Looking?
All those thoughts seem wrapped up in the romance and feel of our business and makes this such a cool place in which to work. Then this past week I saw the following news report:
- Xandria Roxanne Neal, 44, of Hidden Valley Lake, CA plead not guilty today to 29 counts of embezzlement of more than $300,000 from from St. Helena's Rutherford Wine Company, where she had been an accounting clerk since 2009. The incidents occurred between September 2011 and January 2014. She allegedly used gift cards with a company credit card and used the money for personal purchases.
A Repeated Story
|Where Does One Get a Mani in this Joint?
- Tiffany Lee Savastano, 33, of Redmond, Oregon, was sentenced this week to more than six years in prison for embezzling $229,000 from her former employer, Cooper Mountain Vineyards in Oregon.
- Michelle Lynn Davis, 23, A bookkeeper for Shannon Ridge Winery in Lake County, California was arrested on a charge of embezzlement Jan. 2 for allegedly taking more than $150,000 from her employer.
- Chris Mulcahy, 50, was formerly the chief financial officer of Brutocao Cellars in Hopland California and was arrested Saturday on suspicion of embezzling about $250,000 from Brutocao Cellars.
- Cynthia Gonzales, 37, of Turlock and Sharon Verville Lopez, 37, of Ripon were sentenced to six months in jail for the theft of funds from Bronco Wine Company in Ceres. Both entered pleas earlier this week in Stanislaus County Superior Court to felony grand theft.
- FBI agents and Mexican immigration officials arrested Martin Christopher Edwards last week. The 48-year-old, from Napa, California, has spent more than half a year on the run in Mexico after being indicted in June 2013 for 23 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and embezzlement of approximately $900,000 while working as vice president and general manager of the Wine Tasting Network.
These stories aren't uncommon in the wine business. Having worked in the business as a banker since the early 80's, I see far more defalcations than this public sample. Many embezzlements never hit the press. Rather than going public, many owners fire the employee and don't report the crime because they feel shamed at being duped. But if you're a winery owner and have been a victim of embezzlement, my advice is get over the embarrassment because you aren't alone. There are enough of your neighbors out there to start a support group.
|Idyllic Lifestyle Where Nothing Bad Happens
I think there are 2 main factors that contribute to what appears to me to be a higher incidence of embezzlement. 1) The trusting and hospitable nature of the business, 2) the low value placed on accounting and proper management reporting.
The wine business contrary to consumer thinking isn't rolling in cash. Winery owners direct their precious resources to things they value and spend first on the vineyards, wine making, hospitality, travel and entertainment to support markets, insurance, direct to consumer sales, the newest basket press, landscaping, balloons on the road, and a litany of other things well before getting to such mundane things like putting in good systems and procedures, and spending on good advice.
Some Solutions
Reviewed Financial Statement with a reputable industry focused accounting firm should be the minimum standard for a commercial winery. A reviewed statement from an industry expert brings the been-there-seen-that factor and includes the testing of important systems and controls. The Review will say on the cover page that management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements.
The CPA won't guarantee there is no fraud but engaging an auditor for a Review does establish a more relevant relationship versus just tax preparation or compiled statements. You can ask in conjunction with the Review that the CPA focus on certain areas that are important to you. You can ask them to focus on your systems, controls and procedures to avert fraud and they will give you suggestions in a letter to management that will show both findings and suggested changes. Sure there is a cost to this level of engagement by your CPA, but you are willing to spend on insurance? Why not buttress your business against fraud and pay to have your CPA look over your practices and those of your employees.
The Basics of Fighting Fraud in your Business:
- Set internal controls, such as separating the control of accounts payable and accounts receivable.
- Always have two sets of eyes on the books.
- Trust but Verify: Take measures such as getting unopened bank statements and keeping separate on-line logins to bank accounts.
- Limit access of banking, accounting records, and systems to only those required by a given employee
- If a new vendor shows up in the books, check to be sure its legitimate.
- Insist those in control of cash in the business take two weeks of vacation annually and cross-train others to handle those roles.
- Use a CPA as you would insurance. Figure out how someone could steal from the business and then make changes.
- Vary routine and make it clear to employees there are audits of accounting records on both a routine and on a surprise basis.


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Curtain falls on Spisto's Globe tenure
Lou Spisto once thought he might become an actor. As it turned out, one of the things he perhaps grew to love least about leading the Old Globe Theatre was the constant sense of being in the spotlight.
"You have to be the living embodiment of the organization, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Spisto said of serving as the theater's CEO/executive producer — a post he departs Dec. 31 after nine years at the Globe.
In tomorrow's Sunday Arts:
A special report: What comes next for the Globe?
"You have to walk, live, breathe the job. If you're at the cleaners in the morning and you're wearing a track suit or whatever, and people say, 'Oh, you're the guy from the Globe,' and they want to talk about the Globe, you've got to talk about the Globe. You don't get away from it.
"It is a life, not a job."
As Spisto, 55, exits center stage for a new life as an independent theater producer, he leaves the theater in significantly stronger financial shape than when he came aboard as executive director in 2002. The Globe's budget is in the black (although its endowment is still small at $4 million); its annual budget has grown from $12 million to more than $20 million; and both ticket income and charitable contributions have roughly doubled.
He also led a $75 million capital campaign that included building the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and opened a 42,000-square-foot scene shop and warehouse in southeastern San Diego, where the Globe forged new ties with minority communities.
Artistic progress is always harder to chart. The Globe, like any theater, has had its ups and downs, as Spisto tried to balance support for new and riskier work with shows more likely to fill seats.
It was "always a dance between commerce and art" — all the more so for Spisto because he officially handled both the Globe's administrative and artistic operations after the departure of longtime artistic director Jack O'Brien in 2008 and the subsequent short tenures of Jerry Patch and Darko Tresnjak.
Dedicated and demanding
When Spisto thinks of highlights from his time at the Globe, he cites the 37 world premieres and new-play commissions "at a level the Globe has never done prior." He registers pride at introducing more stories about race and class, citing the upcoming "The Scottsboro Boys" and "The Recommendation." And he notes the revival of the Globe's Summer Shakespeare Festival.
Spisto cites in particular last summer's production of Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning "August: Osage County," whose Globe staging, Spisto believes, was superior to the Broadway version. That show made him think, "I don't know if I can be involved with anything better than this," and helped prompt his decision to move on.
Spisto plans to stay in San Diego for the time being, taking a short breather before jumping into three producing projects he has in the works. Asked if he plans to delve into any new hobbies, he said with a smile, "I'm not going to be kayaking, no."
A driven, dedicated man who acknowledges he is not known for taking vacations, Spisto also could be a demanding boss — at least judging by talk that has bubbled up from the Globe's Balboa Park digs over the past few years.
While O'Brien, speaking from his home in Connecticut, said he doesn't know the present mood of the place firsthand, he ascribed potential discontent at least partly to the nature of the business.
"They were cranky when I was there, and they'll be cranky after I die," O'Brien said. "I think cranky is one of the building blocks of the regional-theater movement."
Dakin Matthews, a Globe associate artist who worked at the theater for some 25 years, said the departures of Tresnjak and Patch (who held positions of artistic leadership solo and in tandem between 2005 and 2009) seemed to reflect some potential conflict.
But Matthews added that Spisto's arrival in 2002 was a welcome development for the theater, which "was a very, very troubled organization" after O'Brien's slow retreat from the Globe and the earlier departure of longtime managing director Tom Hall.
For his part, Spisto — who was paid $304,349 in 2010 — said some friction at the institution was inevitable. But he called his affection for the staff "beyond ridiculous," and noted that the only job cuts during his time there were three budget-related layoffs in 2008. As a manager, Spisto added, he was mindful that families' livelihoods depended on the Globe's financial health.
Spisto's own family came from Brooklyn, N.Y., although he grew up mostly in Staten Island. A theater devotee from age 11, Spisto directed and acted while attending Notre Dame University and later earning a master's in arts administration at the University of Wisconsin.
He arrived at the Globe as executive director after serving in top administrative posts at two symphonies and the American Ballet Theatre.
But as O'Brien (now a multiple
O'Brien said Spisto's approach was very different from how things operated when he was at the Globe. But "I have seen some of the work (Spisto produced), much of which I applauded," he said.
Yet "I'm not surprised he should stop now," O'Brien added. "Because I don't know how anybody could sustain that (pace)."
Time of transition
Spisto's announcement in October that he would leave the Globe this month meant the theater would not have time to hire new long-term leadership before his departure. (Michael G. Murphy, formerly the Globe's general manager, was named interim managing director.)
The announcement also came during the run of "Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show," a production whose opening was preceded by significant turmoil. First, its lead actor left amid reports of past legal trouble involving a teenage girl; shortly after, the show's director also departed. Those events lent the Globe plenty of uncomfortable publicity.
But Spisto said his decision was voluntary, and that he wouldn't be able to pursue his producing projects if he were still at the Globe.
"In a way it pleases me that (some) question it, because if I was so attached to the Globe, and the perception is that I would never leave this organization under any circumstance unless they had to pull me out of there, how interesting is that?" Spisto said.
"The fact of the matter is, I've been looking to do this for a while, and I've had projects for a while, and it's my decision."
Globe board chairman Harold W. Fuson, Jr. likewise said Spisto's departure was voluntary. Asked to assess Spisto's tenure, Fuson (a former Union-Tribune executive who took over the Globe's chairmanship this year) couched his praise in terms of what lies ahead.
"I think the important thing for any institution is, how do we get better?" Fuson said. "I have a whole list of things that Lou did a terrific job on, and that leave us in a very strong position. But that (creates) an obligation to say, OK, now what?"
Spisto concedes his departure comes with both sadness and satisfaction.
"What we get to do at this theater is pretty astonishing," Spisto said. "And to be able to help shape that — guide it, lead it, support it — and to know that it's a stronger place than when I came? I'm very grateful."
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The Wedding List
The Wedding List is a free-for-all game in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories wherein players must collect cars scattered throughout the city and deliver them to shipping crates. Only players in the vehicles to be collected will know the destinations of the shipping crates. Cash is awarded based on the condition of the cars when they are delivered. Once all the cars have been collected and delivered, the player with the most cash wins this game mode.


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Great Grapefruit' tag.
According to the World's Healthiest Foods, grapefruit is a powerhouse of nutrition and an excellent source of vitamin C, dietary fiber, vitamin A, potassium, folate, vitamin B5, and phytochemicals such as liminoids and lycopene:
- Vitamin C helps to support the immune system and fight free radical damage.
- Lycopene, a carotenoid phytonutrient, appears to have anti-tumor activity.
- Limonoids inhibit tumor formation by promoting the formation of a detoxifying enzyme.
- Pectin is a form of soluble fiber that has been shown in animal studies to slow the progression of atherosclerosis.
In addition, studies have revealed that eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice, reduces the risk of kidney stones, protects against lung and colon cancer, significantly increases the production and activity of liver enzymes responsible for eliminating toxins from the body, and helps repair damaged DNA in human prostate cancer cells.
N.B. If you know the source, just inform the owner of the site for purpose of reference.


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Lou Ruth Blake was the family's matriarch who sang in the church choir and organized gospel shows. Lowell Frederick Blake liked to make people laugh. Venessa Marie Blake was the ardent churchgoer with a contagious smile.
All three family members died within days of each other earlier this month from complications of the flu — a cluster that state officials acknowledged was unusual. Their deaths caused a stir in the community of Lusby in Calvert County, where Blake family roots run deep in the town of nearly 1,600.
Cousins, nieces and longtime friends packed the small Dunkirk Baptist Church on Wednesday, nearly 30 miles from their hometown, to say good-bye to the trio. Their three coffins lay side by side at the front of the church — a mother and her two adult children.
Even as family members said they accepted that God had decided it was their time, they were still shocked and saddened at the loss.
"We are devastated because we still don't know what caused this," said Vaughn M. Johnson Sr., who is married to one of Ruth Blake's four surviving children.
Families often all become sick from the flu or other contagious illnesses, but rarely do so many members die. A fourth family member, Elaine Blake, was hospitalized at Calvert Memorial Hospital but survived and is now home.
"We still have Elaine, and for that we are blessed," one of the many ministers who spoke at the funeral proclaimed.
The deaths are still being investigated, though state and local health officials believe they have a good idea about what happened.
Officials from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene say that all four had the H3N2 influenza strain, a type circulating this season.
Ruth Blake had been vaccinated, but it may not have been the higher dosage needed by seniors.
Underlying health conditions probably prevented her from fighting it off, and she died at home from some undetermined complication, said Dr. David L. Rogers, the Calvert County health officer. Autopsy results were not yet complete.
Her children also tested positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a staph bacteria that is resistant to some commonly used antibiotics and difficult to treat. They may have carried the bacteria on their skin or in their noses for years and it caused no harm, said Rogers, adding that 4 percent to 6 percent of the population carries MRSA. Or, he said, one may have spread it to the other with a cough.
In their flu-weakened state, the bacteria made it to their lungs, giving them fatal bacterial pneumonia.
Rogers said all the deaths weren't attributed at first to the flu, which hasn't been particularly bad this year.
"We didn't know what we were dealing with initially," he said. "But it became clear quickly and we knew there was no public health threat."
Including the Blakes, just five people have died in Maryland from laboratory-confirmed flu complications this year, compared with 34 at this time last year, though many illnesses and deaths don't get reported, said Frances B. Phillips, the state's deputy heath secretary for public health services.
Dr. David Blythe, the state epidemiologist, said even in an active flu year, the family represents a unique case. "The flu and MRSA are both common," Blythe said. "Family clusters are not as common, though it might, at times, go unrecognized."
State health officials have sent specimens from the family to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further review.
But there was no talk of flu or MRSA as the three Blakes were memorialized at a standing-room-only service. The church program said only that Ruth Blake died of lengthy illness and her children from a sudden illness.
The family was well-known in Lusby, where people call each other "cousin" and "aunt" even if they if they aren't really related. Children were raised by extended family in the typical "it takes a village to raise a child" mentality of many small American towns.
"That is how things were back then in the country," said Charles K. Kinslow, a cousin who as a child lived across the field from the Blake house. "Families clustered together in small communities."
That family remembered 81-year-old Ruth as a woman who devoted her life to raising her seven children and sang with the gospel group the Eastern Jubilees. On Wednesday, the choir sang one of her favorite hymns: "You Can't Hurry God." She was buried in one of her grand hats, a staple of her wardrobe.
"She made sure everybody who got close to her felt her motherly presence," said the Rev. Samson Nortey during services.
Ruth didn't seek treatment for her flu, but days after her death her son Lowell developed upper-respiratory symptoms. He was taken to Calvert Memorial Hospital and later transferred to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where he died, according to the hospitals and health officials. He was three days shy of his 59th birthday. Although he didn't live with his mother, he often visited and helped take care of her.
Lowell worked in masonry and took in teenage foster children. He built model cars and, like his deceased father, enjoyed gardening.
"He made all of us happy and was always looking out for others," Nortey said.
Daughter Venessa, 56, died at Calvert Memorial. Active in her church, she also spent a lot of time with her daughter and two grandchildren.
Stevenson Foote grew up in Lusby and remembered Venessa from high school as a quiet soul. "She never changed," he said. "Even years later she was still quiet."
Singing filled the funeral service as much as crying. People jumped to their feet as favorite hymns were played. They worked to remember the lives that were, instead of the lives that were lost.
"God took all three at this point of time," Foote said. "For some reason he wanted them all called home."
Lou Ruth Blake was the family's matriarch who sang in the church choir and organized gospel shows. Lowell Frederick Blake liked to make people laugh. Venessa Marie Blake was the ardent churchgoer with a contagious smile.


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Archive for Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Baldwin City woman identified as victim in fatality accident
Car overturned on county road southeast of Lawrence
February 13, 2008
A Baldwin City woman has been identified as the victim in a fatality accident Tuesday southeast of Lawrence.
Donna Caviness, 59, was killed when her 1997 Honda overturned in the 900 section of East 1900 Road, according to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. She was pronounced dead at the scene. She was the only person in the car.
Officers are still investigating, but they said the car was traveling south on East 1900 when it went out of control, entered the west ditch, struck a culvert, became airborne and came to rest on its top.
Several law enforcement and medical rescue crews responded to the accident which was reported at 4:24 p.m. Tuesday.
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Thanks to all of you, Blogathon was a massive success! We ended up raising a whopping $5,483.01 for the Secular Student Alliance! That's going to fund a whole lot of secular activism. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
As a geeky side note…I'd like to point out that now that we have three Blogathon data points, the amount donated has such a perfect linear fit that the R squared value is 0.9999. Of course, I purposefully set a linear donation goal for this year, so that may have influenced how much people donated. In that case, I should have set the goal to $10,000!
Tomorrow I'll email those of you who won a copy of Michael Shermer's book. But until then, I'm still recovering. Heck, I don't even entirely remember what I wrote yesterday. Which were your favorite posts? Leave your thoughts in the comments, and that way all of my readers don't have to wade through 49 posts to find the gems. If there were any gems. At the very least, reading my hate mail was fun.
Alright, back to being comatose!